The Original Languages of the Bible
The human authors of the Old Testament wrote in Hebrew, except for some passages in Aramaic (Jeremiah 10:11, Ezra 4:8–6:18; 7:12–26; Daniel 2:46–7:28). The Aramaic of the Assyrians and Babylonians heavily influenced the Hebrew spoken in the first century. We would expect Jesus to have spoken in the common language for the Jews of His day.
While the Romans spoke Latin, the Greeks had sought to make their language the international language. Thus, one could use Greek, even more often than Latin, to speak almost anywhere in the Roman Empire. The Greek language allowed missionaries such as Paul to travel throughout the Roman Empire speaking only one language. Even though all the New Testament writers were Hebrew speaking Jews, except for Luke, they wrote the New Testament in common Greek of that day because all the churches could understand it.
Reading the books of the Bible in the languages that they were originally written is helpful for interpreting the Bible. Although it will not answer all of your questions about what the scriptures say, it will give you a whole new set of questions. Some questions you have when reading an English translation will disappear. However, translators must do a certain amount of interpretation to translate. Thus, those who read the original languages most deal with the questions of interpretation left by the original languages.
By far, the most important tool for interpreting the scriptures is to know the Bible as a whole. There is a tendency to squeeze more meaning out of grammar and vocabulary than is reasonable. We should remember that the authors used a common language of their day in a natural way of communicating.
The following are links to articles designed to help those who don’t understand the languages of the original texts to gain some insight about these particular topics.
world (updated 9/28/2007)
believing, faith, and faithful (TBD)
life and soul (TBD)
heart and the inner person (TBD)
husband and man, wife and woman (TBD)
Others to be added.
How to receive a new life in Christ.
Back to "Confessions of Faith".
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